Electrical power distribution systems include many independent devices that control the distribution of power from power generating facilities to meter access points at residential, commercial, and other buildings. Typically, a “transmission system” transports power from a power generation facility to a substation, and a “distribution system” distributes the generated power from the substation to an end point. The transmission and distribution systems can each include one or more devices that monitor and/or control power flow. For simplicity, any such device is referred to herein as a “monitoring device.” For example, a monitoring device can include a faulted circuit indicator (“FCI”), a current sensor, and/or a voltage sensor.
It is often desirable for monitoring devices to communicate with one another or for individual monitoring devices to communicate information and/or control functions to a remote location. For example, it may be desirable to communicate information regarding a detected fault in a power line to a remote repair facility. Traditionally, monitoring devices have communicated using short-range radios disposed in a control box, which is hard-wired to the monitoring devices. A user must drive up to the control box to obtain information from the monitoring devices. This solution is point-to-point and would be prohibitively expensive and inefficient if implemented over a wide area with many sensor nodes.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for an improved means for communicating information from a power line monitoring device.